Calcium is an important element in the diets of mammals, especially humans. Calcium is required for adequate bone formation and maintenance. Calcium is also needed for various other diverse, metabolic body functions. Calcium deficiencies can result in significant health problems, for example, osteoporosis. Therefore, consuming a diet with adequate calcium is important for health and is useful to avoid various clinical conditions (see, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,851,221, 4,740,380, and 4,737,375, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety).
One of the major sources of dietary calcium is dairy products, particularly milk. However, many people do not consume milk in quantities sufficient to provide adequate calcium for various reasons, such as taste, lactose intolerance, and the like. Conversely, consumption of other beverages, such as soft drinks and New Age beverages such as water drinks and juice-based drinks (e.g., Snapple, Quest, Clearly Canadian and various teas such as Nestea and Lipton), is common and popular for most people in everyday life. Thus, it would be highly desirable to have an improved calcium supplemented beverage that can be utilized in the same manner as beverages commonly in use. One of the problems in supplementing such beverages with calcium is poor storage stability due to the solubility of calcium compounds in aqueous media.
It would be highly desirable to have an improved palatable, acidic, non-dairy, storage-stable beverage supplemented with significant amounts of calcium.